Blasphemous as it sounds, I do not like the taste of Guinness. All the years living in Ireland didn’t help me personally in terms of taste acquirement. I admit to a twinge of jealousy when observing Erasmus students and other visitors – F included! – taking to it quickly and could declare the pint in Ireland as the best they’ve had.

A clever idea came not so long ago. Like mothers who slyly hide peas and brussel sprouts so the kids would eat them, I thought using Guinness as a cake ingredient could be a neat trick in improving how I perceive the taste of Guinness. With St Patrick’s round the corner, I even have the perfect excuse to whip the cake up without the guilt (or the worry) of eating it all by myself.

My search on the cyberspace for a recipe as starting point of the cake somehow always leads back to one by Nigella Lawson, so I guess that was as good a place to start. I can’t say I liked the first cake too much, and after a little tweaking, the second one came out better suited to my taste. My friends who were over for our version of housewarming-slash-Paddy’s-Day party also seemed to like it. But of course, all these eating means I actually forgot to take a picture until I was on my very last slice of cake, ooops!

As not many among my friends are fans of frosting and I forgot to stock more whipping cream, I forwent Nigella’s version and whipped up something quickly, except I forgot to add some butter so it was a tad runny, as you can see from the photo. Probably should have double checked the recipe instead of pulling something out of thin air myself. The recipe below contains the correct ingredients though.

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C, and line a cake pan.
2. In a large saucepan, melt the butter, turn the heat off, and add the Guinness.
3. Whisk in the cocoa powder and brown sugar.
4. In another bowl, whisk sour cream, eggs and vanilla essence together.
5. Add the sour cream mix to the Guinness mix, then fold the flour in.
6. Pour the rather liquid batter into the pan, and set to bake 50-60 minutes.
7. Leave the cake to cool completely before removing from the pan.
8. To prepare the frosting, cream everything together.
9. Ice the cake to resemble the good stuff and its frothy white top.
10. Slice the cake and enjoy the treat!

The Guinness goodness was always present, but rather subtly, so at times it felt like I was just eating a chocolate cake, then the flavour of the stout snuck up on me, minus the bitterness. I actually like what I tasted, and so did my friends who didn’t think they’d enjoy a cake made with stout either. I declare this a success! And hey presto, not only have I found just the goodie to serve on Paddy’s Day – now and in future – I have also checked off another item from my 101 goals list. Happy day, indeed ;)

I have another recipe for Guinness chocolate cake that I think is nicer than Nigella’s version.
I got the recipe from Naz years ago and still make it from time to time! I’ll email it to you for the next time you fancy making a Guinness cake.